This classic mandarin orange salad made with jello, cottage cheese and cool whip can be made in minutes and then chilled for the perfect summer recipe for cookouts and potlucks.

You know those classic recipes that take you back to childhood? When I found this recipe in my grandma’s recipe box I was immediately transported back to her 1960’s decor basement where we had Thanksgiving when I was a kid. This was always that sweet mysterious salad that as a child, I dived into because… well it was salad, right? It checked that mark off the box when my mom said to eat some salad. 🙂 Done!

Fast forward decades later, and I’m not surprised that I still love it. Every bite of mandarin orange sweetness is my favorite part to this recipe. It’s kind of like dessert salad, and I’m okay with that.

How to Make Mandarin Orange Salad

Step 1 – Beat Cottage Cheese Until Smooth

The first step to this recipe is to beat the cottage cheese until it’s nice and smooth. I’ll be honest, I had a hard time getting the cottage cheese to a smooth consistency with my hand mixer. I didn’t mind the result in the salad, but after reading the recipe again, my grandma did say to use a blender. So, the next time I might try that. Always listen to grandma.

Step 2 – Add remaining ingredients and mix

Add the remaining ingredients of cool whip, mandarin oranges and jello. Stir and mix until they are well blended. Easy, right!?

Step 3 – Let chill for at least one hour.

The last step is to let this orange salad chill for one hour. You need to let the jell-o dissolve into the other ingredients. You can make this a day ahead as well which is what I typically do.

Serve chilled. I added a few extra mandarin oranges to the top to make it look pretty. And I enjoyed every single bite! There’s nothing like the classic orange salad to take you back!